I Audited My Coaching Practice Efficacy

I sat down last week to prepare a MasterClass on what I call an “antifragile” business model. If you’re curious, I posted a long essay about it yesterday (read or listen here), and I’ll be sharing the Membership Model Masterclass on my Substack (free for annual subscribers). A surprising result of preparing this talk was the audit (below) of my coaching practice’s efficacy. Curious? Read on!

Flower Mandala Photo credit: Kellie Adkins

My Coaching Practice ROI

Just the Facts, Ma’am

My coaching practice's numbers are really good against the industry's actual benchmarks — as long as I’m precise about the price, era, and offer. I won’t conflate several different offers into one overblown ROI. 

The full, unblended picture:

35* VIP long-term Coaching clients, served in a long-term business mentorship, between 2012 and 2016. Thirty of them paid $6,000 for a 6-month container. Five paid $15,000 for a more intensive tier. That's the entire sample I'm using for this comparison, split honestly by what each group actually paid and what happened to them.

*I've also served scores of more private clients for short-term or one-off sessions, but I’m not counting those here. Ditto, the hundreds of clients I’ve mentored in my group coaching programs, the hundreds more in the yoga teacher trainings where I’ve taught the Business of Yoga, and thousands more in virtual workshops since 2011 (in my own business and for the Yoga Alliance and in my own and others’ Yoga Teacher Training programs)— but all of these offers are different products with different structures, so I'm not blending their outcomes into any of the figures above because collapsing different price tiers into one blended average is imprecision I live to resist. 

Only two private clients (in my entire career) did not complete their engagement: one due to illness in the family, one due to misalignment (as she consistently failed to take action, I cancelled the contract and referred her to a coach that only does mindset. As a Holistic Business Coach, I do both mindset and strategy).

What the numbers show:

First, my pricing itself deserves scrutiny –and I didn’t pull these numbers from the ether, they are the result of my own needs and the market. I teach my clients how to develop their rates in a similar personalized, and data-driven way, with my Financial Ease™ Formula and Karma-Friendly Pricing™ Guide.

Contemporaneous industry data from that exact window (Action Learning Associates, 2015) put the average small-business coaching engagement at $6,000 for six months, about 18 hours of contact time — which means my base rate wasn't rarefied; it was, almost to the dollar, the stated market average for that category at that time. 

This does read as premium pricing against what coaching clients actually reported paying overall: the ICF Global Coaching Client Study, fielded in the same era, found the average total cost of a coaching engagement across all types was $4,353 — meaning my $6,000 container ran about 38% above what a typical client paid for coaching in general, while sitting right in line with (technically 14% under) the ~$387/hour that the 2012 ICF Global Coaching Study found coaches with 10+ years of experience were charging globally.

What this assessment doesn’t factor in: my private clients also received unlimited DM and email access to me between sessions; they received personalized resources specific to their businesses; they also received complimentary access to my group courses; and, when they needed, they had access to my team of graphic designers, web designers, and copywriters. (← That last sentence gives away how long I’ve been in the online coaching world 🫠Currently, clients get access to my enterprise-level AI tools and systems frameworks)

That added value isn’t common in "average" small business coaching arrangements. Everything I listed in that last paragraph is considered an “add-on” and would have been an additional fee (I know, because I’ve spent nearly $100K on coaching for myself over the last 15 years). 

My own practice included the above because I run my coaching practice more like a business incubator than a service provider: I give my clients all the tools and resources they need to succeed if they take action and implement the strategy we design. The last thing I want is to hand someone a strategy and leave them to figure out the implementation alone.

Likewise, the current $15,000 tier, at that same moment, was priced above both benchmarks — genuinely elite for a solo-practitioner offer in that market; but, again, this assessment doesn’t accurately reflect the additional value I provided the Clients who engaged at this level. I offered them much more than “hourly sessions.” To the woman, they received an additional 3 months of email and text support after the sessions ended, all my group Business Design and Trust-based Marketing Courses –including a free pass to any live cohorts within one year of their engagement. They also received personalized resources and a private community (truly exclusive; not monetized) to network with other founders in the wellness space. 

Here is what happened at each tier, reported separately (drumroll, please):

The $6,000 tier (30 clients, 2012–2016): 

The average outcome was a $5,000/month revenue gain, or $60,000 annualized. Against the $6,000 cost of the engagement, that's a $54,000 net gain, a 10x return, and a 900% ROI, with the investment paid back inside roughly six weeks of the new revenue run-rate. This is my largest, cleanest sample, and it's the number I'll state without qualification.

The $15,000 tier (5 clients, 2016; 4 clients, 2025-2026): 

The outcomes split into two distinct patterns rather than one blended average, so I'm reporting both rather than smoothing them into a single misleading figure. Three of the nine increased overall revenue by $100,000 — by design: the first thing we did together was craft their $10K offer and focus on selling 10 of those offers within our engagement. Against the $15,000 cost, that's an $85,000 net gain, a 6.7x return, and a 567% ROI.

The other two (in 2016) didn't chase more revenue at all; they doubled their revenue while cutting their client load and working hours roughly in half. I don't have a clean dollar-ROI figure for that second pattern, because the win wasn't purely financial — it was structural, and it's arguably the more antifragile result of the two: same or better income, half the operating exposure. I won’t force a flat ROI onto a result that was about capacity, not cash. As the other 4 clients are still in various stages of growth (or still actively working with me), I can’t yet speak to their 5-year metrics. By design, my coaching supports clients in crafting a polished $10K offer that showcases their unique skills and is absolutely irresistible to their ideal clients.

Ninety percent of the full 2012–2016 cohort — both tiers combined — were still in business five years later, against a general small-business survival rate of roughly 51% and a female-founder-specific baseline closer to 74% (Wharton School; BLS survival data). That's a real number from a real, bounded cohort — and precisely because it's bounded, I'm not extending it to describe clients I served in different formats, different decades, or the handful of clients I've worked with since returning to long-term 1x1 coaching in 2025. 

Something worth noting is that because I run my coaching practice more like a business incubator than a consultancy, I intentionally provide clients 6-or-9-month payment plans. This increases the likelihood that clients see a return on their investment before they’ve finished paying me; again, this is intentional. One of the goals I set for my clients is to increase profitability within the year –not just increase gross revenue.

What The Facts Don’t Show

These numbers don't cover the nuance. In 2017, I pivoted out of individual coaching into nonprofit and corporate consulting; partly, this was a natural evolution, and partly, it was a forced decision. I was the victim of stalking and had to delete my online presence and move away from public-facing individual work for personal safety reasons during those years. From 2017 to 2023 I consulted for small and large organizations, for-profit and not, then spent 2023–2024 training large language models, before returning to coaching individuals in their businesses in 2025 — which is both my current and original role, just resumed after a brief institutional hiatus. While I've also served hundreds of clients in group coaching programs, hundreds more in yoga teacher training, and thousands more in virtual workshops since 2011, those are different types of services, so I’m not collapsing them into the result.

For most of 2025 and the beginning of 2026, I was building the Centered Survivor Antrifragile Resilience program and laying the foundation for the Wisdom Method Institute, so I wasn’t actively recruiting coaching clients. Thus, four data points are not a track record, and I don't yet know whether these clients’ results will land closer to the $100,000-revenue pattern, the halved-workload pattern, or something else entirely. Until there's more time to assess the long-term value of the work, and more clients to average, the accurate claim is: 900% ROI, proven, across 30 clients at $6,000 (2012–2016); a 567% ROI on revenue growth plus a separate, unquantified efficiency win, proven, across 5 clients at $15,000 (2016); and four pending, unaveraged data points at $15,000 in the current era.

Coaching ROI, In General

Precision requires me to share what the research says about coaching that doesn't look like mine: a Harvard Business Review–adjacent survey found only about a third of business leaders reported being meaningfully more effective after a coaching or leadership program at all (Chief Learning Officer / AIIR Consulting), and most masterminds underdeliver for reasons that have nothing to do with the strategy inside them — no real screening for fit, no accountability structure, no feedback loop, a facilitator who either overcontrols the room or vanishes from it (11 Reasons Mastermind Groups Fail). If I only quoted the flattering 5x–7x ROI figures that get passed around this industry without noting that they're sourced largely from people who already believed in coaching before they paid for it, I'd be doing exactly the thing I'm asking the yoga industry's credentialing bodies to stop doing: selling a category on faith instead of evidence.

When Coaching Makes Sense

Here's the actual, non-negotiable bias check, adapted from something I wrote a while back about when coaching is and isn't the right move. “Invest in yourself" isn’t the right advice for everyone, depending on the timing. I'd rather lose a sale (today) than take your money at the wrong moment.

Coaching is generally a good investment when:

• You need clarity on what you're actually selling (hint: it’s NOT the modality), who you serve, or how you're different — and you want to build on a solid foundation

• You're not seeing growth for the effort you’re putting in for a sustained stretch— and can't tell whether the problem is your offer, your positioning, or something else

• You've hit a real ceiling with your time, energy, or current business model and want to save time by getting support and strategy from someone who’s solved the specific problem you're facing

• You're about to pivot and want to do it with integrity and precision to preserve your existing relationships within your community (and contact list)

Save your money if/when:

• You're justifying the Coaching purchase as the plan itself, rather than as leverage on a goal you can name.* The best Coaches are midwives to your business baby —but you are the one who has to deliver the work, and that starts with a general goal 

• The money you'd spend is money you need for rent, health coverage, or your own survival buffer this month, and you have no backup plan— no ROI math holds up against that; fix the floor first

• You're looking for someone to tell you it's safe to stay exactly as you are. No Coach worth their salt will stomach being paid to agree with you (definitely not this one)

* You don’t have to have the exact strategy, or a precise goal; however, a general idea is necessary: such as, “I want to build a book of private clients” or “I want to develop a signature talk” or “I want to secure corporate wellness.” If your only goal is “I want to make money”.....I am NOT the Coach for you. My clients love to make money, and I help them structure their fees so they become high earners and increase their business’s profitability – but that is a secondary result of their primary goal.)

I'd rather you read that list and decide not to work with me this quarter than have you hire me at the wrong moment and become another data point in the "coaching fails to deliver" research.

In Closing

A few caveats worth restating here for clarity:

These data only include clients who invested in high-touch, VIP coaching with me (a complimentary intro session, weekly or bi-monthly sessions, email support and DM support between sessions, all my Business Design and Trust-based Marketing programs, personalized resources, and a private coaching community). These data do not reflect my not-for-profit clients and corporate consulting —those engagements varied in length and structure, so it doesn’t make sense to conflate the data.

I do not guarantee these kinds of results for any and all clients. As I mentioned above, some clients need to develop a different mindset before they can enact a strategy that necessitates leaving their comfort zone. As a Holistic Business Coach, I also provide mindset coaching, but a client’s own readiness to change is the rate-limiting reagent. Not every client is ready to expand her concept of what is possible for her life. In that case, I’d rather refer her to a coach who only does mindset than misallocate her resources by hiring me (AKA, a Holistic Business Coach = strategy + mindset).

Often, these same individuals return to me when they’ve pushed through their remaining mental barriers and are ready for the strategy.  I don’t have a crystal ball, so that is on the individual client –and it is exactly why I provide a complimentary getting-to-know-you session before any discussion of working with me.

If my coaching sounds like a good fit for you, let’s connect! You can get on my calendar here.

I have 4 openings for the remainder of 2026…is one of them yours?

xo,

Kellie

P.S. I’m a full-transparency, sunlight-is-best kinda girl. Want to see the Coaching proposal I send to prospective clients? Here ya go. Read it. Review it. Meditate on it. Then: Book Your Breakthrough Session←NOT a sales call…it’s a vibe check.

P.P.S. My coaching is exclusive by design — I choose to work with female founders because it is part of my mission to elevate underrepresented voices in business. If you identify as femme, BIPOC, neurodivergent, LGBTQIA+ or non-binary, this includes you, too. Let’s vibe check here.

Kellie Adkins, Holistic Business Coach for Change-Makers + Mission-Aligned Founders